1995 law mandates adult prosecution of New Milford 15-year-old

Published 1:41 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

NEW MILFORD -- When Elias Garcia faces a judge next month, it won't be at a closed hearing in Juvenile Court, where spectators are excluded and only family and court personnel are in the room.

The would-be New Milford High School sophomore will be standing in full public view in a courtroom at the historic Litchfield County Courthouse, where countless thousands of defendants have preceded him over the past 121 years, and he'll be charged with one of the most adult of crimes, first-degree sexual assault.

The decision on how to try the 15-year-old was practically pre-ordained as soon as a prosecutor signed the arrest warrant sought by police investigating the Aug. 6 rape of a woman at the same New Milford condominium project where Garcia lived. A 1995 state law requires that anyone 14 years old or older charged with a serious felony be tried as an adult in superior court, unrestrained by the secrecy that usually surrounds juvenile proceedings, where even the victim is barred from learning the outcome.

Only if Litchfield State's Attorney David Shepack had asked the judge to return the case to Juvenile Court within 10 days of the automatic transfer could an adult trial have been avoided, according to Fran Carino, the supervisory juvenile prosecutor in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney.

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"In most cases, the judge will go along with the prosecutor's request," Carino said.

But that window was closed almost immediately last Monday when the state's attorney unsealed the arrest warrant affidavit, publicly identifying Garcia.

Once that step was taken, there was no going back, Carino said.

Prior to 1995, a closed-door hearing, involving witnesses and presentation of evidence, was required in Juvenile Court before the case could be transferred to superior court. Those proceedings could sometimes take weeks.

But spurred by an increase in violent crime by young people, state legislators in 1995 opted to permit a juvenile 14 or older to be tried as an adult for Class A felonies such as murder and kidnapping, and Class B felonies, which include first-degree sexual assault and first-degree manslaughter.

"With Class A and Class B felonies, there is no discretion," she said.

Only about one percent, no more than 100 to 150, of the 10-12,000 juveniles prosecuted across the state each year are tried as adults.

Several such cases have previously been prosecuted in Litchfield, Shepack said.

"It's uncommon, but it's not unheard of," he said.

The victim in the Garcia case was a 25-year-old woman who'd only recently moved into Willow Springs Condominiums on Route 7.

New Milford police said Garcia admitted breaking into the victim's unit, climbing in through the window, and choking her in her bedroom until she passed out. Garcia said he had sex with her while she was unconscious, according to police.

Garcia is also charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree strangulation for the attack

While her organization believes that people should be held accountable for their actions, Anderson said that treating juveniles as adults, especially incarcerating them with older offenders, can cause more problems for society down the line.

"The research is pretty clear that what you end up with is better criminals. Kids who go to adult facilities have higher recidivism rates, because they are not set up with programming that can help juveniles change their behavior. They are basically schools for crime," she said.

Garcia is being represented by the public defender, and is due to appear in court on Sept. 23 to plead to the charges.

He's being held on $750,000 bond at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, which is designed for inmates from 14 to 20 years of age, Correction Department spokesman Brian Garnett said.

If Garcia is convicted, he would serve his sentence at Manson, at least until he is 20, when he would be transferred to an adult prison, Garnett said.